Ixviii 



Extract of a letter from Captain James Hillyar^ datei 

 Valparaiso Bay, February 24^th, 1814, Captain 

 Porter, 



The letters from your prisoners* must be highly 

 gratifj^ing to your feelings; and I hope the indi- 

 viduals who have benefited by your humane atten- 

 tions, will feel themselves bound to rescue your 

 character from every unjust aspersion. 



" I have availed myself of your permission to 

 copy some of the papers, and have taken the names 

 of those who have acknowledged your goodness to 

 them. The liberal minded will always do you jus- 

 tice, and a much higher reward awaits the per- 

 formance of every Christian duty to an afflicted 

 fellow-creature."t 



These papers alluded to by Captain Hillyar, were 

 acknowledgments from prisoners, to whom Captain: 

 Porter had either restored their property, or caused 

 it to be paid for by his purser. They have been 

 lost, and the persons themselves seem to have lost 

 the recollection of them ; since some of these are 

 among the most flagitious of Captain Porter's ac- 

 cusers. It is probably unnecessary to say more on 

 the subject. Candour will be satisfied with what is 

 here produced; and prejudice and detraction would 

 not be convinced, even were we to ofier testimony 

 from heaven. 



The Reviewer next proceeds to denounce Captain 

 Porter for having taken the hberty to "nickname" 

 the group of Islands, the Washington Islands, and 

 to make himself merry with his taking possession of 

 Nooaheevah, in the name of his government. 



" The group of Washington Islands," says Krus- 

 enstiern, "was discovered in the year 1791, by 



* These were lost by Captain Porter, after the capture of the Essex 

 t See the correspondence, in Chapter xviii. 



